Melamine formaldehyde resins are useful in the manufacture of various end products which have over the years acquired wide applications. It is recognized in the art, however, that in order to obtain melamine formaldehyde resins having good physical properties and to have a process with acceptable cook times, it is necessary to use melamine of high purity, such as that obtained through the recrystallization of crude melamine. When impure or crude melamine is utilized in the production of melamine formaldehyde resins, the properties of the resin are largely unacceptable for most applications. Moreover, the cook times, i.e., the time required for melamine formaldehyde resin to reach a predetermined end point, are substantially reduced, leading to premature gelation of the resins. Thus, it was found that in order to reproducibly control the reaction of melamine and formaldehyde, it was necessary to utilize melamine free of impurities. This requirement that a high purity melamine be used is detrimental due to the need to recrystallize the crude melamine which is an added time-consuming step that increases the cost of the melamine raw material.